Navigating
Federal and State Grants
At any one time there can be over 500 grants available in Australia at the Federal, State and Regional levels.
The most notable aspect of these grants is that they are mostly small, competitive and discretionary. Unlike the certainty of the R&D Tax Incentive or the Export Market Development Grant, these grants typically require a panel to select a handful of ‘winners’ from a very large number of applicants. Many grants have less than 5% success rate.
At Access Grants, we improve your chances of success by helping you understand what governments are looking for in a “fundable” project. Our experienced grants consultants can work with you through the project design and research stages to formulate a project that matches your objectives to government policy outcomes. We combine persuasive storytelling with rigorous evidence to craft a grant application that shows the value of your project and your ability to deliver it.
It is important to understand that discretionary grants are virtually all based on some new project that you have on the drawing board, but for which you need support to get it over the line. That project would be about doing something not part of the ordinary course of business, that would help to achieve government priorities (e.g. creating economic growth, generating new revenues and creating new jobs – the more the better). Answering the question “What’s in it for the government” is a great starting point.
These grants are generally not open all the time – they go through rounds of application and assessment, and often the open period is very short. The application process is designed to favour applicants with the specialist knowledge to prepare key elements of their application long before the grant portal opens. We regularly contact our clients to keep up to date with their project plans so we can help them be “grant-ready” when an opportunity opens.
A grant-ready project is one that is ‘sitting on the launchpad, waiting for fuel’, and would launch in around 6 months if that ‘fuel’ became available. For that project, companies need to establish a project proposal including a business case with clearly articulated solutions to policy challenges and a fully modelled financial proposition demonstrating the benefits to you, the government and the broader community. Collaborations and partnerships with complementary organisations will improve chances of success, as will having them on board with supporting documentation like letters of support.
For further information and guidance on the steps to take to prepare a project for the purposes of grant funding, visit Dave’s LinkedIn pages for guidance.
We would be happy to arrange an obligation free discussion about your company’s plans and projects and help find suitable grants for you.
Contact us to find out more.
Grant Readiness Quiz
Got a project on the runway waiting for fuel? Take our Grant Readiness Quiz to see if you’re ready to apply for grant funding and let your vision take flight!